This Read Me file provides information for using the NOAA Great Lakes Ice Atlas
Web site, CD-ROM, and DVD-ROM. This publication is an official NOAA Atlas. The
Web site version of the NOAA Great Lakes Ice Atlas will be updated from time
to time as new ice cover information and new publications become available.
This will not be the case with the CD because of space limitations. However,
the updated Web site will be available on an updated DVD. The CD and DVD contain
the entire web site content as of August 2003.

Contents

Dataset and Analysis Products
Original Ice Charts. The original ice chart dataset consists of over 1200 digitized
ice charts. These ice charts display observed ice cover over each Great Lake
for every winter season from 1973 to 2002.

Analysis Products. There are three analysis products. The first product includes
ice charts and ASCII grids of dates of first ice, dates of last ice, and ice
duration for each winter season. In addition, there are ice charts that portray
the composite maximum and minimum and a 30-winter average of each of these variables.

The second product is the 30 annual daily ice cover time series. The daily
time series was used to create: computer animations of spatial patterns of ice
cover for each winter and line plots of the daily lake averaged ice cover for
each lake, for each of the 30 winter seasons.

The third product is weekly statistics. There are weekly ice charts and grids
of: maximum, 3rd quartile, median, 1st quartile, and minimum ice cover concentrations
for the 30-winter base period. The weekly statistics are based on the original
ice chart dataset and not on the daily time series.

Operating the CD-ROM / DVD-ROM

The CD / DVD is compatible with Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and Unix operating
systems. On most Windows machines, the Ice Atlas homepage will open automatically,
once the CD / DVD is loaded into the drive. If the homepage does not open automatically,
simply double-click the index.html file located at the root level. It will launch
in your default browser application (such as Netscape or Internet Explorer).
The interface may be navigated as if it were online.

External links to other Web sites will not function without Internet access.
You can quickly ascertain whether you are operating from the CD / DVD or the
Internet by reading the URL. The CD / DVD pages have an address beginning with
<file:///>, while the online pages begin with <http://>.

Technical Information

Downloadable Documents
A number of documents are available on the NOAA Great Lakes Ice Atlas in Portable
Document Format (PDF). These files can be viewed using Adobe Acrobat Reader.
A free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader can be downloaded from: <http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html>.

Advanced Features (Animations, Zipped files)
To view .AVI animation files: any media application capable of playing ".avi",
such as Microsoft Windows Media Player, or Real Player may be used. To view
.FLC animation files: any media application capable of playing ".flc",
such as QuickTime, may be used. Free copies of these applications can be downloaded:
Quicktime from<http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/>; Windows Media
from <http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/>; or Real Player
from <http://www.real.com/>.

The atlas includes files that were compressed using WinZip. They are identified
by the .zip extension. To open .zip files: a Zip compression utility such as
PKUNZIP, WINZIP, Stuffit Expander (Macintosh), or almost any other compression
utility can be used to uncompress them. Note: these files were originally created
and compressed on a Windows platform. Please be aware that formatting errors
may occur if uncompressed using a non-Windows platform.

Editorial Policy

The NOAA Great Lakes Ice Atlas is managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL), U.S.
Department of Commerce. As a federal government site, all federal editorial
policies apply, such as those on privacy, copyright, commercial
promotion, etc.

Information presented on the web site, CD-ROM, and DVD is considered public
information and may be distributed freely. If you elect to use any of the materials
(graphs, ice charts, ASCII files, ARC/Info files, or text), please use the citation
given below, and include the appropriate URL of the page(s) from which the materials
were taken. Updated versions of this Atlas may include additional authors.

The NOAA Great Lakes Ice Atlas is maintained by the NOAA's Great Lakes Environmental
Research Laboratory (GLERL) U.S. Department of Commerce. NOAA makes no warranty
regarding these data, expressed or implied, nor do the fact of distribution
constitute such a warranty. NOAA and GLERL cannot
assume liability for any damages caused by any errors or omissions in these
data, nor as a result of the failure of these data to function on a particular
system.

The appearance of external links on the web site, CD-ROM, or DVD does not constitute
endorsement by the U.S. Department of Commerce or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration of the external Web sites or the information, products, or services
contained within. For other than authorized activities, the U.S. Department
of Commerce and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration do not exercise
any editorial control over the information you may find at these locations.

Specific products and manufacturers are mentioned in certain areas of the NOAA
Great Lakes Ice Atlas. Mentions of these products or manufacturers do not constitute
an endorsement by NOAA or the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Acknowledgements

This work was funded in part by NOAA’s Earth System and Data Information
Management program. The NIC and the CIS provided the historic ice charts. Mr.
David Norton's (NOAA GLERL) contributions during the data reduction and quality
control phases of this project were critical for its successful completion.
University of Michigan’s Cooperative Institute for Limnology and Ecosystems
Research (CILER) staff; D. Meyers, B.A. Hibner, N. Morse, P.J. Trimble, K. Cronk,
and M. Rubens and GLERL staff; Ms. Deborah Lee, provided invaluable contributions
to this project. Ms. Janet Szczesny (CILER), Ms. Cathy Darnell, and Mr. Gregory
Lang (NOAA GLERL) were instrumental in the development of the GUI.